The present invention relates to infant incubators and, specifically, to an improved incubator having an access door that is heated when in its fully opened position so as to reduce the disruption to the heated environment within the infant compartment when the door is again closed. Infant incubators, in general, provide a unique environment surrounding the infant and create a heated, humidified atmosphere to promote the well-being of the infant contained within the enclosure.
In general, such incubators comprise a base wherein various heating and other air conditioning components are located and which provides the heated, humidified supply of air to an infant compartment that contains the infant.
The infant compartment is normally enclosed by a hood which is transparent so that the caregiver can see the infant and ensure its safety. The temperature within the infant compartment is controlled to be at a set temperature established by the caregiver and it is important to maintain that set temperature constant throughout the time the infant is contained within the infant compartment.
With such infant compartments, however, it is normal to access the infant in order to carry out an intervention, that is to perform some procedure on the infant in furtherance of the care to that infant. At such times, the infant compartment or hood may be provided with one or more doors that allow the caregiver that access to the infant.
In general, the infant compartment has various doors for access to the infant. Generally, there is a relatively large door where total access is needed for the particular intervention and also, there are one or more smaller doors, referred to as handholes, that allow introduction of the arms of the caregiver and are used for lesser interventions and cause less disruption to the internal atmosphere. As used throughout the present description, the term door will be seen to refer to basically any access door to the internal environment of an infant compartment.
Obviously, when any such door is opened, there is an effect on the environment containing the infant since the open door invites the admission of external ambient air which, of course, is not heated and humidified to the extent of the desired atmosphere for the infant. The internal infant compartment environment is thus compromised and heat is lost to the external environment. The amount of heat loss depends, among other factors, on the surface area of the particular door and the amount of time consumed by the intervention. Accordingly, once the particular intervention has been completed and the door closed, the incubator must restore the internal environment of the compartment to the set point temperature as rapidly as possible.
As a further problem with respect to quickly recovering the temperature within the incubator, in general, the doors are swung outwardly and stay in that position until the intervention is completed. Thus the door itself is basically in the surrounding atmosphere which is at ambient temperature and which is lower that the temperature desired within the infant compartment. Whereas the environment within the incubator may be set at, for example, 90-100 degrees F., the ambient in a hospital is more likely to be at about 70 degrees F.
Accordingly, when the door is again shut after completion of the intervention, that door itself can further delay the time needed to bring the infant compartment back up to the desired set temperature since the surface of the door has been reduced to the ambient temperature and that large surface provides a cooling effect on the internal environment when in the closed position. Obviously, the internal atmosphere has been disrupted by having the open portal in the first place, however, the loss of heat is further compounded by returning the now cooled door to the closed position. Normally, when a door is opened, the consequent drop in temperature causes the heater to increase its energy to try to maintain the internal environment at the set temperature. Accordingly, when the door is again closed and is colder than the desired set temperature, the heater has to exert additional energy to maintain the temperature since heat is being lost to the cold door surface.